Steel and Fire
by grenadegirl101
Summary: Maiko: We all have a story to tell, piece by piece. These chapters voice the tales of Mai and Zuko untold by the show while (hopefully) staying in character. Read and Review!
1. Three Counts

"Zuko, wait up!"

Hurrying to catch up to the young firebender in the pouring rain, Mai is jogging as fast as she can in red silk robes, which are a darker, more serious shade than most eleven year-old girls would wear, but that's just Mai's style, so to speak. Zuko manages to just slightly slow down to a jog on the rain-soaked, quickly liquifying gray ground. Both have been racing to make it inside Mai's home before the real downpour starts.

Picking up her skirt and cleverly weaving around the puddles, Mai's steps are much different than that of Zuko's, who is racing to get to cover, recklessly kicking up mud behind him.

"Seriously, wait for me!" Mai calls ahead.

"I can't, my feet will catch onto mud!"

"...And how is that important?"

"If I get wet _and _muddy Azula will have a field day making me look stupid in front of my parents, that's what!" Zuko shouts behind him in protest.

Responding, Mai yells back, "Well if you're _so_ worried about falling, at least need to look out for the slippery marble, genius."

"I'm being careful, alright? Just because I'm running faster than you doesn't mean I'm going to fall_—_"

Mai sees Zuko's shoe hit the soaked marble before he even senses it.

_One._

_Two._

_Three._

Almost immediately, twin flashes of silver appear flying through the air from her burgundy robes, pinning Zuko's sleeve to a painted wooden column.

Silently walking to the now shocked and flailing Zuko, Mai admits she's walking _slightly_ slower than necessary, but it _is _nice to know that her weeks of clandestine target practice have paid off. Might as well savor the moment.

_Well, now that I can actually hit a target (for example, the unsuspecting Zuzu, as Azula calls him) I might have something mildly interesting to get better at, or at least less boring than playing with dolls with Ty Lee or watching Azula go through firebending routines._

As Mai walks to the columns so that she is under the shelter of the overhanging roof, Zuko stops his muttering of "How did she do that? What happened?" and says,

"Is this when you tell me 'I told you so,' about slipping on the marble?"

Smiling ever so slightly, Mai responds,

"Eh, seems a bit cliché, don't you think?"

"I wouldn't exactly call it cliché to pin me to a wooden column with, what are these...barrettes or something?"

"Hatpins."

Flailing with indignation, Zuko responds, "But...that's just...insane!"

At this, Mai narrows her eyes and purses her lips into an angry scowl.

"You're exactly like everyone else, aren't you? Wanting me to stay still and quiet and _bored_!"

In her rare moments of anger, Mai's amber eyes blaze intensely, a sharp contrast against both her lackluster demeanor and dark robes. However, her anger quells, and with a crumbling edge to her voice, continues,

"Well, I'm tired of everyone thinking that I'm helpless, of the mask of being polite and naive I've had to put on every day for eleven years, my whole life. But I thought...I thought you would be different."

As she says this, Mai flings the rest of her hatpins away, but remarkably, they each hit the columns in successive order, her skill showing even when she doesn't mean for it to.

Motionless for a moment, she finally shakes her head, saying flatly, "Never mind, pretend this never happe-"

"No! That's...that's not what I meant!" Struggling more with his own inability to vocalize his thoughts, Zuko says,

"It's crazy in that I've never known anyone be so talented at something and keep it a secret. If you're so good at something, why hide it?"

Taken aback, Mai responds,

"I don't know...my entire life my parents have just treated me like a task on a checklist to make sure I don't cause any trouble, don't make my father look bad politically, don't bother them. Maybe I want to be able _to do _something interesting, just to know that...I can't be completely controlled. That I can handle myself, not be handled."

Nodding solemnly, Zuko says, "No, I understand. My father expects me to be tougher, more ruthless, like Azula. But you _are_ really talented with knives, it's like you're a...secret warrior or something!"

Not even attempting to hide her smile, Mai replies a bit sheepishly, "Thanks, I'll remember that. So...do you mind not freaking out about me throwing knives at you to either of our parents? It...um...wasn't personal, just target practice. And, uh, hatpins aren't _that_ sharp, so you wouldn't have been hurt. Much."

"Well, I don't mind being your target for knife-throwing. Much," Zuko responds with a trace of a glimmer in his eyes before adding, "Speaking of that, you think you could take these hatpins out of my sleeve? Thanks for keeping me from slipping on the marble, but I'm stuck; the pins really pierced the columns."

Mai's sepia eyes widen in surprise as she more closely inspects his sleeve affixed to the column: two silver hatpins intricately etched with designs are stuck straight out in the wood. Remarking just slightly gleefully, Mai says,

"You're right, they've both got to be at least an inch deep in the wood!"

"Yeah, that's actually really impressive, but what are we going to do?"

Thinking for a moment, Mai responds,

"Count to three, and we'll both pull them out."

Putting both of her hands on the left column, Mai can't help but notice Zuko's one free hand on top of hers: warm and dry, distinctive of a firebender.

_One._

_Two. _

_Three._

"Aughhh!" Zuko yelps loudly as his sleeve is finally freed, slipping slightly before catching himself on the wooden column. Handing over the two silver pins to Mai with just a hint of indignation, he sighs in relief.

Crossing her arms in self-satisfaction at the sight of Zuko getting flustered and fully smiling for once, Mai laughs, "Thanks, now hurry up, slow-poke, we have to get my pins before it rains!"

Sprinting before just a moment before slowing down for the firebender, Mai lets Zuko catch up to her, and they stride past the columns to collect the pins, Mai standing on her tiptoes to get some, and Zuko running and jumping to get others.

"He's going to slip on the marble again leaping like that. But it is pretty nice of him," Mai muses as Zuko struggles to get one last pin, this time with the help of brief firebending blasts to propel himself up.

"Zuko! Let me help!"

Just as Mai calls that out to him and begins walking toward him, Zuko frees the last one and skids back on the marble floor after coming down from his jump, the sliver of metal slips down, and again it's as if time slows down.

_Three counts for the third time today, that's interesting._

In those three beats, Mai slides down to the floor and twist toward the marble, catching the wisp of silver just before it would shatter on the unforgiving stone. Studying the ornate pattern for a moment on the floor, she rises, flipping the dainty dagger through her fingers before it disappears into her robe.

Zuko watches Mai, astonished, asking, "Where'd the knife go, it just disappeared after you did the...acrobat sliding thing or whatever. That's amazing, how'd you learn to do that?"

Holding her hands up, Mai replies, "Years of practice, and hey, these billowy sleeves are useful for something!" shaking her sleeves happily.

Silent for a moment, Zuko says sincerely, almost desperately, looking at her with those amber eyes that seem too worldly for a boy of twelve, "Don't ever let anyone let you think you're helpless, or meant to just be handled. For Agni's sake, Mai, you've got to know that you're independent, and fearless, and just..._worth it_."

Mai quietly says, "Thanks, Zuko. Really, thanks." before laughing dryly a few moments later,

"You know, I think that's the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me. Now, 'calm' and 'reserved' I get a lot."

Joining in on her laughter, Zuko responds, "Hmm, wonder why. Though you did without a sound catch a pin in what, five seconds flat?"

Mai grins to her friend and replies, "More like three seconds."

"Sure, whatever you say."

Strolling around the walkway of the building, the pair now has all the time in the world and are as peaceful as the falling raindrops near them.

Or maybe Mai's placidity has rubbed off just a bit on Zuko.


	2. Azula Always Lies

**Author's note: Sorry for the change in tense, but the change fit well with the story. Also, this specific storyline will continue next chapter. Read and review, please!**

"You won't believe what I just saw."

Holding up with her thumb and forefinger a cloth doll swathed in rosy pink silk, Mai turned to face Azula, who had just rushed into the room stumbling with excitement but quickly regaining her composure, as the firebending princess always did.

In her usual sighing drawl, Mai remarked, "I don't know, Azula, how can what you saw _possibly_ be more entertaining than playing with Ty Lee's dolls?"

Though Mai was clearly being sarcastic, Ty Lee beamed at her; after nearly an hour of her pleading for a playmate, the bored twelve-year-old had finally given in to her request and the two had sat playing dolls since then. After all, Mai had no one else she would rather have talked to, as Zuko had excitedly told her that he was going to ask Iroh if he could listen in on a meeting, since his father Ozai had allowed Azula to for months. The firebender hadn't returned for a few hours, so Mai presumed his uncle had complied.

Though she hid her emotions as usual, Mai studied Azula's expression, her eyes like burning embers as she was unable to contain her news any longer, her smile stained with the superiority of knowing what her friends didn't. Mai sensed this couldn't be good, and wondered _why _had the council meeting lasted hours longer than usual? Just as she fully collected her thoughts, Ty Lee blurted out,

"Well, spill it! Did you see a cute guy?"

"I saw a certain idiot become a _burned_ guy." Azula laughed disturbingly, her giggling honey-sweet.

Still oblivious, Ty Lee asked, "Huh? What's that supposed to mean, silly-"

"Where's Zuko?" Mai's struggled to keep her voice steady, though she glanced at Azula as if still uninterested in her tale. She was not going to let Azula think she was weak; besides, the story and Zuko's disappearance were probably just a coincidence..

Dusting off imaginary dirt from her gold-colored sash around her waist, Azula continued, "Funny you mention my brother. Well, he finally got fat Uncle Iroh to let him attend a war meeting, but he just _had_ to open his stupid mouth and contradict a general who was only saying the best battle strategy of sacrificing a few hundred soldiers for the greater good of the Fire Nation."

Mai tasted steel and gritted her teeth, remembering what she would sometimes hear Zuko mutter when they were younger:

_Azula always lies._

Murmuring the phrase under her breath was almost purely accidental as she clenched the flimsy doll to keep from reaching for her pins.

"Well, anyway, he wasn't allowed to speak up, so he had to face the consequences: Agni Kai."

The doll dropped, its limbs flailing before abruptly hitting the ground, though a sound was hardly heard. Even Ty Lee was visibly alarmed now, her eyes widening as she asked,

"You don't mean...Zuko had to duel the general?"

Throwing her head back in bubbling, sinister laughter, Azula smirked, "No, dummy. Zuko had to duel Dad. Fire Lord Ozai," saying her father's title dramatically for effect.

_Azula always lies._

Staring blankly at the blood red wall, Mai mildly folded her hands in her lap and said nothing, appearing reserved but in reality trying to keep from screaming.

Ty Lee, however, was itching to know what happened, and she anxiously asked, "But why would he agree to that? What happened?"

Looking up at the ceiling in dread, Mai mused,

_Oh, Ty Lee, she's dangling her story right in front of your nose._

Though in truth, it was only Mai's self-control that kept her from pinning the patronizing princess against the wall to get the truth out of her, and that was slowly draining away.

"Since the little dum-dum thought he'd be dueling the general, he agreed, so of course when Zuko saw his father, the little coward just begged not to fight him. Tears were streaming down his face, he was literally on his knees!" Even Azula was now less gleeful; as she told her story, she became more dramatic, her hair slapping her face quietly as she paced back and forth.

Gesticulating wildly whenever she spoke, Azula resumed, her voice reminding Mai of a cat ready to pounce,

"But Father of course wouldn't let Zuzu be a little coward, so he demanded he fight like a man or receive the consequences. Guess which one he just had to pick? Zuko just kept trying to beg his way out of a public duel, an _Agni Kai_ no less, so Ozai taught him a lesson by burning him, right across his eye, and Zuzu screamed and cried like a baby. Iroh made a huge fool of himself, running to grab him." Azula's last several words spoken were tinged with disgust.

Her ears ringing, Mai went numb, everything around her growing dimmer, hazier for a moment. But what struck her surprisingly much was the way Azula told them as if it all was so rational, so reasonable that a thirteen year-old boy would be forced to fight his own father and then be _burned_ across the face by him.

All for speaking his mind, for being the only person out of dozens at the war meeting to openly find an issue with sacrificing hundreds of loyal soldiers.

Her eyes narrowed as she fixed them on the largest of several fire nation insignias in the room: coal-black flames seemed to twist across scarlet silk, choking the brightly colored fabric until it made itself perfectly apparent, right in the center.

The princess griped, "Now I have to be the sister of someone who's publicly humiliated himself. Ugh, he's shamed himself for good."

"You're lying."

Those two words were barely loud enough to be heard, escaping from the lips of a girl who had for years kept her emotions tightly locked away, that Mai herself looked surprised for a moment before speaking them again, this time with more conviction.

"You're _lying._"

Ty Lee whimpered.

Azula stared her down with eyes more bronze than gold as opposed to Zuko's, but as Mai glared back at her, she was able to see that color wasn't the only difference between the siblings: Zuko's reflected his emotions, but Azula's constantly radiated guile and superiority. Strangely, the more Mai contemplated that fact, the more empowered she felt. Standing up, she asked,

"Where's Iroh?"

Wherever Zuko was, his uncle wouldn't be far away.

Appearing confused for a beat, Azula then scoffed, "Wouldn't you like to have a cup of tea with this family's fatter coward?"

"Yes. Yes, I would," Mai parried simply.

Azula's eyes widened in realization as she chuckled, "Ah, you want to visit _poor Zuzu_. Be my guest, I saw Iroh running towards the infirmary, and Zuko being...carried."

Ignoring Azula's words hanging in the air, Mai instead glanced at Ty Lee for a moment. Though the normally cheerful girl's round gray eyes were welling up with tears, she smiled slightly, mouthing one word:

_Go._

Striding out of the room and ignoring Azula's taunts and lies, that is exactly what Mai did.


	3. author's note

Hey everyone, hope you're all great! Anyway, i hate for his to be an author's note instead of a new chaper, but it'll be a quick note. The good news is that the next chapter is all written, but the bad news is that since I left town today without internet or laptop, which is where I keep my fanfiction, I won't be able to post for another two weeks! I would have written some sooner, but I had midterms...meh. I know I know I'm full of excuses, but I'll post as soon as I get back! Thanks for reading and putting up with my irregular posting! ^_^

-GG101

P.S. Chapter 4 is being written...on actual paper. Stay tuned!


	4. Change

**A/N: I'm back to the land of consistent internet where I can actually post! I hate to have taken so long to post this, but don't worry, I've got lots more chapters in store for you guys and hope you enjoy this one! Thanks, RNR!**

Ch. 3: Change

Her strides echoing in the marble halls, Mai sprinted, forgetting grace, forgetting restraint for just minutes, but longer than she had in years.

Zuko did have a way of doing that to her: making her forget her place, her many learned manners.

_No, don't say his name. Not now._

Rounding a corner and skidding on the tile floor, Mai noticed the bitter sting in her eyes and tried to press the thoughts of Azula's tales out of her eyes but wiped away only tears.

As she neared the infirmary, Mai smelled over-brewed, forgotten jasmine tea as well as the sickly sweetness of pain medication and ointment.

Slowing to a walk up to a tired-looking table, she nodded to Iroh, whose knuckles were white and his face almost as pale as he clutched a cup of tea, hoarsely saying,

"Ah, Mai, it is good to see you. Would you care for...for some tea."

The aged man looked away as he bit back the stumbling in his voice.

Mai struggled not to scream to ask where Zuko was, her eyes frantically searching door after door; however, Iroh's visible sorrow lead to restraint winning the internal fight. Remembering her manners out of empathy instead of schooling, Mai took a seat, responding quietly,

"Sure, Iroh."

Sliding her a cup, his eyes were glassy as he stared at nothing in particular.

"So you've heard of all of this. You know, you're the first person to come to the infirmary, to see if my n-nephew, if he's...alright. Everyone's too busy _talking_ of all this. But..."

Taking a long sigh as he continued,

"Zuko's in...in there, if you wanted to know."

Silently, he motioned toward a door to the left.

Looking up to the sage man, Mai realized that her parents probably would have preferred her to refuse and stay seated with her tea, and it would be much more polite for her to stay and talk with Iroh, but her instinct told her to _go _to her friend.

Iroh must have seen the conflicted look in her eyes, as he said with a hint of a sorrowful smile,

"It's alright, Mai, go to him. I'm sure you're the first person he'd want to see anyway."

Nodding gratefully to the old man, Mai rose from her chair and paced to the door, perhaps out of habit not making a sound.

_Click._

When she entered the room, the door opened almost as subtly and quietly as Mai, much to her relief, as Zuko was asleep assumedly from heavy pain medication.

Approaching the firebender, Mai noticed first his tied-up, coal black hair, tousled from sleep, and one of his eyes drooped shut, giving an appearance of him simply being sound asleep.

It was cruel how much this contradicted with the bandage on his face, swollen with gauze and ointment. A large, stark-white patch on his face was secured to his head by a strap stretching around his head.

Mai gasped slightly at the dressing as Zuko rolled over and drowsily opened one eye in the haze of pain relievers. However, as soon as he saw a figure only a few feet away from him, he jumped and sat up as he realized it was his friend, rattling the iron bed frame, which Mai reached a slender hand out to steady and silence it. Both of them still had widened eyes and held breaths for a few beats before Zuko said shakily,

"Hi."

His voice rattled more than the rusted frame had, but Mai kept hers steady by speaking in a monotone.

"Hey."

In an odd blend of medicated stupor and shocked breathlessness, Zuko responded a little bitterly,

"So, you're here. Thought everyone was supposed to avoid me."

Mai's expression grew disbelieving as she cautiously asked, "Zuko, what exactly are you talking about?"

All was silent too long until, in a burst of anger, Zuko flat-out kicked the table at his bedside, making it scrape against the rough stone floor until hitting the wall with a heavy thud. Accompanying the outburst with his hands grasping at his hair, then at nothing, he muttered gratingly,

"I'm saying that I'm a _traitor_ to my country, to my own father, so much so that I'm being shunned. And _banished_ on a fool's mission. Or at least that's what I've heard, stuck in _here._"

His voice nearly broke with acridity even as he turned to look at Mai, who searched his face for any remnant of the boy she had known not so long ago, just yesterday.

She noticed herself always coming back to his eyes: one was a tiny world of gold flecks, and the other was hidden by a flat bandage.

_Zuko always had such beautiful eyes._

In fact, they were the first thing Mai had noticed about the firebender when Azula had first demanded that she play with her at the palace. They had always shone golden, like the sun hanging low in the afternoon sky. But now his one un-bandaged eye didn't shine like that of the caring boy she knew; it _burned _with anger and shame.

Speaking as if miles were between each word, his face twisting with emotion, Zuko whispered as though his words were boiling, his voice rising with emotion,

"I feel like my father and the general were wrong to sacrifice people's lives as if they were some pawns in a sick game, but at the same time, I can't shake the thought that I've let down _everyone_. That I've lost everything because of my own arrogance. But the only way my father will let me get my respect, my place, and my honor back is if I...if I capture the Avatar."

Forcing herself not to scoff, Mai recalled tales she had heard from an early age of the Avatar, though most she now recognized as biased, such the tale of how Avatar Roku had betrayed the Fire Nation in his attempt to quell the divine conquest of the Great Sozin, how _because the Fire Lord wanted him to,_ he was an considered an enemy to the country.

_Just like Zuko_.

Grabbing the firebender's arm with rare desperation to get him to listen to her, Mai cried, "For Agni's sake, don't be a big enough idiot to believe the propaganda! You're not a traitor or obstacle in some godly conquest or whatever they want to call it, you're _Zuko_."

Zuko's one gold eye seemed to flash with the intensity of both as he retorted angrily,

"What's that supposed to even mean? You're right, I am an idiot, and I don't even know why you came here. Why would you want to see _me_?"

Silent for a moment, she finally offered the truth:

"Because you're the boy who would jump for hatpins in the rain, who just doesn't have a talent for being cruel, who never stops trying at everything-"

Mai ended her sentence abruptly after noticing just how closely she had leaned towards Zuko; in fact, she was just a few inches away.

The prince must have noticed her widened eyes, because he jumped back a bit, saying cautiously,

"Uh, sorry, didn't mean to get so, um, close..."

Studying the firebender as he stumbled over his own unsteady words, Mai realized Zuko was himself, but he still had the look of a scared animal she had noticed minutes ago. He was already a different person from the boy she'd snuck glances at when they were small, tossing turdleducks crispy bits of bread.

_Please don't change._

"I'm going away...for a while...but I _will_ capture the Avatar. I have to...but I'll come back, you know. I'll earn back my people's respect and my father's...I just have to keep searching. To keep trying...like you said."

And so with a sad smile that made Mai feel as if her heart was being pricked by one of her pins, Zuko leaned in nervously and kissed her cheek, his face warm perhaps as a side effect of being a firebender.

Though more likely from embarrassment.

And though they talked for much longer, and the kiss shocked Mai as though she were pleasantly buzzing, she couldn't help the sinking feeling that everything was about to be altered, and not for the better. Both knew this, and yet both were unaware of just how much the world would transfigure itself and the two of them.

For they were children.

And this was goodbye.

Zuko left the next morning.


End file.
